1. Field of the Invention
The teachings generally relate to a wearable, portable docking station having a charging mechanism for a portable electronic device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A longstanding painpoint of the mobile electronic device industry is inadequate battery life. Battery technology has not kept pace with the power-hungry applications being added to smartphones, for example. The 3G cellular market is growing at a high rate and will reach 1 billion units by 2012. There are, however, over 3.5 billion cell phone customers worldwide, and it is expected that the five-billionth mobile subscription will be signed during the final months of 2011, at which time the worldwide penetration of mobile devices will be in excess of 70%. APPLE alone has its own major market in that it expects to have 10 million iPhones in service by the end of 2009. Accordingly, the market opportunity for a solution to inadequate battery life is very large—the cell phone accessory market, for example, currently exceeds $70 billion, and in a survey of 4000 cell phone users, battery life was the primary concern.
The painpoint is increasing every day with the increase in the use of smartphones having multiple advanced features that require the use of additional battery energy. The use of mobile video is becoming much higher, in that 35% of consumers are using mobile video today, and this is expected to grow to over 55% in 2010. These advanced features are 3-5× more power-intensive than talking, and consumers have found that, after limited use, they are out of power!
Until now, there has no suitable remedy to this painpoint. Previously, one remedy was that you could get a portable power-pack to plug into your device to extend battery use, but these are separate units that are cumbersome and must be tethered to your device and carried separately. You would typically do this when you were out of power, or you would carry the power-pack as an emergency backup. However, as an emergency backup, it would likely discharge and lose power, such that you may not still have the charge reservoir that you needed. As another remedy, a user could simply carry a spare battery, but this battery will also likely discharge over time. In addition, the carrying of a spare battery can be hazardous if worn on, or carried, by the user due to short circuiting of the spare battery on the user's person due to contacting with spare change, etc. Moreover, the widespread use of APPLE products, for example the IPHONE or IPOD, has resulted in a widespread use of a device that does not have a replaceable battery. These devices require recharging and cannot be supported by a spare battery and, thus, would benefit highly from the present teachings.
Accordingly, the present teachings are disruptive in that they provide a significant lifestyle change. Imagine having the ability to extensively use all the multiple advanced features on your smartphone without a car charger or having to carry a spare battery as a separate component. Imagine being on a 3 hour flight during which you watch a movie for about an hour-and-a-half. You arrive at the airport and use your smartphone GPS to get directions to your first meeting, and then you use your smartphone to give a 20 minute projection presentation. You then use your smartphone to get GPS directions to your second meeting, during which you use your smartphone to take a 10 minute film of a manufacturing problem. You participate in a third meeting as a 15 minute video conference call on your smartphone. You go to lunch, check and respond to messages on your smartphone by phone calls, emails, and text, and then you watch a 10 minute marketing webinar on your smartphone. After lunch, you use your smartphone to GPS directions to your fourth meeting and present a 10 minute projection proposal, again on your smartphone. You're ready to fly back now, and you browse the net on your smartphone for a location for a dinner engagement location that you need to find after your flight. As you wait for the plane to arrive, you watch a 30 minute TV show on your smartphone. Upon arrival, you still have 3 hours of power remaining on your smartphone! Up until the development of the teachings provided herein, this has not been possible.
The teachings provided herein direct the user to a multi-faceted solution that provides a portable power supply that, among other advantages, (i) can be operable by a user while mobile; (ii) can be worn, as well as carried, by the user; (iii) is an actual docking station that has an untethered power connection; (iv) has an external power connection for at least a second device, such as a BLUETOOTH headset; (v) has multi-charging capabilities with ports compatible with AC, DC, and USB charging; (vi) has untethered solar charging ability; (vii) has a mechanism to position the solar panel for optimal insolation; (viii) has a mechanism to position the graphical user interface for ease of viewing portably; (ix) has modular components, such that the charging mechanism is interchangeable with support casings having alternate form factors, thus reducing manufacturing costs and increasing customer use; (x) has a charge delivery rate that is at least about 25% higher than that of current USB chargers; (xii) has up to about 95% efficiency in charge transfer to a portable electronic device; (xiii) has a power management function to optimize power use; (xiv) has a memory management function to download critical or labeled data from a portable electronic device and transfer the data to an external computer readable medium using a flash memory and a BLUETOOTH chip; and, moreover, (xv) has the ability to produce power off-the-grid, such that the power supply can function even during emergency power outages due to severe climatic conditions, earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, and the like.